Bodies that drown in Lake Tahoe rarely surface or decompose.

Lake Tahoe is a bit of a hoarder when it comes to human bodies. The frigid temperatures of the lake don’t allow bodies to decompose. It is when bodies decompose that gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, etc. Are release and allow the body to rise to the surface of the water. Therefore, bodies don’t surface in the lake either.

Often the people that drown in the lake are never seen again. Their bodies cannot even be fetched by divers due to the depth of the lake and the limited depth divers can reach because of the lake’s altitude. At sea level, divers can reach depths of 130 feet but at Lake Tahoe, the maximum depth is 90 feet before a diver hits a dangerous, bends-inducing level. The few bodies that have been rediscovered however were perfectly preserved.